Monday, January 2, 2012

A recent study showed a protein (called PZP) increases in the blood as an early sign of Alzheimer's disease. I'm not bashing this research at all, because most neurologists would love a simple, reliable, blood test to offer patients.

However, the same protein also increases in one other human condition.

Pregnancy.

And I just can't wait to tell someone "The labs show you're pregnant. Or have Alzheimer's disease. Or both."

I have to agree with the first Anonymous - funny in theory, not funny when you actually do have to tell someone s/he has Alzheimer's. We know you really do care about your patients!In the unlikely situation that the patient in question is a fertile woman, would you just add a genuine pregnancy test to the lab test order?

Well that's not bad really, since you can rule out pregnancy for all your male patients and also for those female patients who are either postmenopausal or have been surgically sterilized. Just sayin'.

Welcome to my whining!

This blog is entirely for entertainment purposes. All posts about patients may be fictional, or be my experience, or were submitted by a reader, or any combination of the above. Factual statements may or may not be accurate.

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